Polk fires trial assistant

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 30, 2006

Susan Polk, who is defending herself against charges that she killed her husband, abruptly fired her assistant today.

No reason was given publicly for the sudden ouster of Valerie Harris, who quickly packed her bags and left the courtroom. Harris returned a little later, saying she had to talk to Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady to confirm that Polk -- who has fired several attorneys already -- could indeed send her packing.

Although Harris is not an attorney, she had been serving as Polk's case manager, sitting alongside the defendant in the courtroom and serving as her liaison to prosecutor Paul Sequeira, who has refused to deal directly with a defendant he believes is delusional.

It was not immediately clear just when Polk fired Harris, as the termination came outside the courtroom and was not immediately addressed by Brady. Harris has had a rocky tenure with Polk, finding herself repeatedly shushed and reprimanded for failing to perform even routine tasks exactly as Polk demanded.

Polk, 48, stands accused of killing her 70-year-old husband, Felix Polk, in October, 2002, during an acrimonious divorce. She at first denied killing him but later said she acted in self-defense after years of abuse.

Harris' ouster came after another morning in which Brady repeatedly admonished Polk for arguing with the judge and for making frequent objections. Brady also refused to allow the defendant to show jurors crime scene photographs, saying it would take too much time.

The judge told Polk she could present the photos at the end of the day's session if there was sufficient time, and she warned Polk -- who has a tendency toward plodding, almost meandering, cross examinations of witnesses -- to wrap up her questioning of former sheriff's Detective Michael Costa by day's end.

Polk, who has repeatedly claimed that Brady is acting in cahoots with Sequeira, was not pleased.

"It's at the discretion of the court," Brady replied. "It takes an undue amount of time."

In questioning Costa, Polk sought to portray her husband as the aggressor, noting that he weighed much more than her. She asked Costa if men typically have more upper-body strength than women.

Yes, that's generally the case, Costa replied.

She asked if women generally beat men at arm wrestling or bench-press more weight than men, then asked Costa if he'd bet on the man to win if he were watching an arm-wrestling match between a man and a woman.

"I'd have to see the parties before I'd make a bet," Costa replied.

Polk claims investigators contaminated the crime scene, tainting any evidence collected from it. She asked Costa today why he confiscated only some knives from the couple's Orinda home, and also asked if particular aspects of the scene didn't seem to make sense.

"Murder in itself doesn't make sense to me," he said.

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